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Please help with Roon server/core issue

Hi AGers, 

So long story short: I only stream music (do not own any). I have Tidal and Qobuz streaming through Roon. And that is my problem. I started out using a M1 Mac Mini to stream but I often lost connection to Roon. So I bought a Small Green Computer i5 Sonictransporter and LPS. SQ improved but not the Roon problem. 

We have fiber optic to the house, a fully wired network and I have Silent Angel N8 switch feeding the SGC Roon server and my Lumin T2. No wifi anywhere. 

Finally after a couple of years, the problems increased to the point that 192/24 files crackle and pop. So I wrote to the Roon Community Forum under the Support section.

The Roon support person wrote back that:

*****We’ve activated diagnostics for your account and RoonServer and here’s what we can confirm:

  1. Track downloads from Tidal and Qobuz’s servers are timing out with 24/192 FLAC files, and the prebuffer is barely ahead of playback. At times, it’s dropping out.
  2. There are sample dropouts reported with by RoonServer on T2 Zone. These at times accumulate sufficiently to cause unnatural interruptions on the stream.
  3. RoonServer constantly loses connection to upstream internet services due to network reachability changes in logs.

Your RoonServer’s intranet and internet connection appear to be struggling. How are you connecting your RoonServer machine to the internet?*****

Peter Lie from Lumin kindly wrote back and suggested I try changing my DNS to 8.8.8.8 - which I did. That did help a lot with SQ and speed but did not fully resolve the crackle and pop issue with 192/24 files. 

I would welcome any suggestions. 

Thanks, Nadine

128x128atanarjuat99
atanarjuat99's avatar
atanarjuat99 OP
51 posts
 

@mapman Yes we do have streaming issues from time to time. Very irritating :) And our geographical location may be the culprit. We live in a small town up the coast of British Columbia about 80 km from Vancouver. Though we do have fiber optic to the house, the one other audiophile in town gave up on Roon - which may be a sign. 

@erik_squires I have done the ping test all over the house including from the switch with the Roon server. Always close to 1 gbps. 

@jbuhl I phoned the provider a couple of times. Apparently we have 1.5 gbps consistently into the house.... 

 

@audphile1 I just checked the modem. The fiber comes into it and goes out via copper ethernet. I ordered from Amazon USA a fiber to ethernet converter 5 minutes ago but it is going to take 10 days to arrive. 

@unsound No VPN except occasionally when I connect to my work server. But will make sure it is unconnected when streaming. 

@fastfreight I know what you are saying... just looked at a Grimm MU1 on USAM... expensive in CDN dollars especially as I just talked my partner into Focal Sopra 2s (arriving next week) 😹. But that might be the solution.

In the meantime, I have the fiber to copper converter coming and might even try and run fiber right to the streaming/tv area. 

One more question: when I went to the modem to see if it is converting the fiber to ethernet, I noticed that the core fiber coming in is just hanging there bare. No insulation. Is that normal?

Thanks again to all, Nadine

 

 

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,328 posts
 

Nadine I really doubt Roon itself has anything to do with it. What did the guys from SGC have to say about the issues you’ve been running into with their Roon core?

atanarjuat99's avatar
atanarjuat99 OP
51 posts
 

@audphile1 I am also starting to think that Roon is fine but I need a different Roon core/server. When I contacted SGC, he said that the problem is my router/modem. However the network is consistently fast when I test it through speed test.

I have ordered the fiber to RJ-45 converters and will invest in shielded RJ-45 jacks but might have to face the music and pony up for a Roon server like the Grimm MU1. Rats!

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,328 posts
 

Can you use lumin app to test 24/192 files for few days and see if that gets chewed up as well? If that’s all smooth then you SGC Roon Core is hosed. 

atanarjuat99's avatar
atanarjuat99 OP
51 posts
 

@audphile1 Yes, I did that and they were crackly. Truthfully everything sounds better in the Lumin app but I prefer Roon. However, I did reseed the WBT connector on my SPDIF BNC to coaxial and that fixed the problem. So I am embarrassed to say that the whole problem might have been the cable. 

However, in the process of discovering that I found out that my Roon connection is very tenuous. So am going to implement all suggestions given here especially switching out the RJ-45 jacks and using the fiber to copper converter before the modem.

Thanks again to all for such great help.

 

 

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